Thursday, 30 March 2017

Book Review: But Then I Came Back


About the book

Title: But Then I Came Back
Author: Estelle Laure
Series: This Raging Light #2
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult, Fiction
Expected Publication: April 4th, 2017
Read: January 2017

My Copy

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Edition: Kindle
Purchase Location: NetGalley
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review



My Rating:


Goodreads Summary

Eden Jones, a 17-year-old girl, feels lost after surviving a near fatal accident. Unable to connect with her family and friends, Eden forms an unlikely relationship with Joe, a boy who comes to the hospital to visit Jasmine, a friend who may soon be gone forever. Eden is the only person who can get through to Jasmine, but is she brave enough to face a world that’s bigger and more magical than she ever would have allowed?


My Review


When I saw that my request to read But Then I Came Back got accepted, I squealed around the house from joy until my brother came to see if I was alright. This was my first major request I did on NetGalley back in January and you can’t imagine how happy I was to get a copy of this book. It took me a couple of weeks though to start reading it because I had a lot of respect of the sequel. I had enjoyed the first book so much, I was scared that the second wouldn’t live up to my expectations.

My fear was proven unnecessary because the sequel was even better! I loved it so much, it made me question my feelings towards This Raging Light. It was quite a new concept to me to read a sequel in a series where the point of view changes entirely because the protagonist is somebody new. And although I think it’s a pity that Lucille (protagonist from This Raging Light) fades into the background, I appreciated reading from Eden’s POV so much. Her voice was so honest and totally different from Lucille’s.

Eden is in my opinion more ‘adulter’. She questions everything. She questions life, death, the meaning of coming back from The Inbetween. Lucille was way more stressed about surviving in her own way. Having to work and pay for everything herself because her parents abandoned her, having to look after her younger sister. Her “boy troubles” with Digby… Eden just has different flow in her life.

I can’t imagine how it must be for someone to come back to life from a coma (and I really pray that neither I, nor any of my family or friends, ever have to make that experience). Reading about Eden’s story gave me so many feelings I don’t even know where to start to describe those. It wasn’t easy for her to adapt to life again, but I really like the way how she did it and seeing her going down that path and fighting her problems so bravely.

One thing I really love about her is how immediately Eden accepts her “situations” without thinking it through. When she thought she was dead, the first thing she did was think Oh cool, I’m a ghost. I can haunt people now and scare them. Or when she thought that she might have psychic powers her first reaction wasn’t to question it but to try to make a painting fly off the wall. When she thinks she might not be alive, but only dreaming, she immediately tries to will herself to fly. It’s that carelessness - if you can call it that - that I like about her.

I didn’t expect to like But Then I Came Back so much. It didn’t let me go and I read it in like two/three sittings. In my opinion you don’t have to read This Raging Light to be able to pick up the sequel, which is way I really recommend you to get yourself a copy of this great book!

Other books in the series



This Raging Light #1 (My Review)

I'd like to know

Have you picked up the This Raging Light? Do you think you might add But Then I Came Back to your TBR list?


Wednesday, 15 March 2017

Waiting On Wednesday: But Then I Came Back

"Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by ;Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating."


My choice for this week is But Then I Came Back (This Raging Light #2) by Estelle Laure
Expected Publication Date: April 4th, 2017


 

Goodreads Summary

Eden Jones, a 17-year-old girl, feels lost after surviving a near fatal accident. Unable to connect with her family and friends, Eden forms an unlikely relationship with Joe, a boy who comes to the hospital to visit Jasmine, a friend who may soon be gone forever. Eden is the only person who can get through to Jasmine, but is she brave enough to face a world that’s bigger and more magical than she ever would have allowed?


Why I'm so excited about this book?


I read This Raging Light in January and I absolutely adored the story! It was such a good book to read, although quite depressing, too. I was very lucky to get a copy from NetGalley so that I didn't have to wait until April to finally read how the story went on. And I really loved it! This book makes for such a good read and I can only recommend it to you all! Also, how lovely are those two covers? I can't quite decide which one I like better, but I hope the paperback edition will be the blue one. I'm definitely going to get myself a copy because I adore rereading books that are this good and I want it in my possesion :p


Other books in the series



This Raging Light #1 (My Review)

I'd like to know

What's your WoW today? Don't forget to link me up to your post so I can check them out down below in the comments. :)

Monday, 13 March 2017

Comic Reviews: Wonder Woman (Her Greatest Battles) & WW (The Lies)

I know I know I know. I'm so sorry about not posting actively all my reviews right now! I'm really swamped with the huge amount of work load I should be doing for University, which makes it very hard to focuss on actually writing reviews for all those books and comics I read. But today I've got two little reviews about one of the greatest superheroes ever! Who else could it be than Wonder Woman? Hope you'll enjoy!

About the comic

Title: Wonder Woman: Her Greatest Battles
Edition: Collection of several different stories
Author: Various
Genres: Graphic Novels, DC Comics, Superheroes
Published: February 14th, 2017
Read: February 2017

My Copy

Publisher: DC Comics
Edition: Kindle
Purchase Location: NetGalley
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review


My Rating:


Goodreads Summary

The perfect companion piece to 2017’s highly anticipated film Wonder Woman is here. With the powers of a god and the fighting spirit of an Amazon, Wonder Woman is Earth’s fiercest defender. On Themyscira, Diana was trained from birth to be a warrior. Her skills in battle are unmatched, as are her bullet-stopping bracelets and Lasso of Truth. Now, relive her greatest triumphs! In these stories from such top-tier comics talents as Greg Rucka, George PĂ©rez, John Byrne, Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang and Gail Simone, the Amazing Amazon must use every ounce of her strength and steel to bring down gods, monsters and—when mind-controlling villains take control—even her friends. (Collecting WONDER WOMAN #6, #119, #210, #219; WONDER WOMAN #41; JUSTICE LEAGUE: PART THREE #3; WONDER WOMAN #23.)


My Review


Such a fun collection of so many great different fights with Wonder Woman. Seeing her battle so many different foes in just one collection really made me want to read more and more. I will definitely have to try to check out some of the older stories because I got very curious about some of these fights.

Reading about Diana fighting against Superman (and nearly killing each other) or her fighting next to Power Girl against evil children amongst many other different stories showed me quite a few things I didn’t know about Wonder Woman yet. I haven’t read a lot of her stories yet, sadly (I actually only really started with the Rebirth series) so there’s so much still for me to discover and this served as some kind of guide to where I should pick up some of her older stories.



About the comic

Title: Wonder Woman: The Lies
Edition: Volume 1 (Rebirth)
Author: Greg Rucka
Genres: Graphic Novels, DC Comics, Superheroes
Published: February 28th, 2017
Read: March 2017

My Copy

Publisher: DC Comics
Edition: Kindle
Purchase Location: NetGalley
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review

  

My Rating:


Goodreads Summary

New York Times best-selling writer Greg Rucka returns to Wonder Woman! After suffering an unimaginable loss, Diana must rebuild her mission as Earth's ultimate protector and champion. However, in the midst of her grief, her Lasso of Truth stopped working! Start down the rabbit hole as dark secrets from Wonder Woman's past unravel her present! From the ashes of DC Universe: Rebirth, critically acclaimed writer Greg Rucka along with illustrator Liam Sharpunveil a tale that will forever alter the DC icon in Wonder Woman, Volume 1: The Lies! (Collecting: Wonder Woman 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, Rebirth)


My Review


Wonder Woman is probably one of the greatest heroes ever. She’s also one of the first I ever knew. Next to Superman and Batman she belongs to the Big Three. I didn’t hesitate to pick this copy up! I’ve actually read it in singles when I got them from my local bookstore, but I also got a digital copy via NetGalley and I loved rereading it!

The art is so beautiful and Liam Sharp did an amazing job! This isn’t the first story I’ve read written by Greck Rucka and once again he made me a very happy reader. :)

This is my first time getting to know Cheetah (as I’ve only read about her character passively in the past) and to find out how intertwined her story with Diana is, was really interesting. I’m a big Steve and Diana fan and I can’t wait to find out how it continues (as I’ve said above: I’ve got the Wonder Woman Rebirth series on my Pull list (basically my local comic bookstore just orders the series for me and puts my issues on the side until I can go and collect them) and I need to pick up reading them again, because I’ve fallen quite behind because of Uni).

And I must mention: I was so confused at the beginning because the single issues skipped this story every other issue so that another story could be told in parallel. My review of that story will be up when the next collecting-volume gets published.


I'd like to know

Do you read Graphic Novels or comics in general? If so, what do you like to read? Have you read any Wonder Woman stories? Or have you read any other Rebirth series? I would LOVE to talk to you more about comics in the comments! :)